Various forms of value bearing indicia have been used for a number of years. For example, postal services around the world have used value bearing indicia in the form of stamps for evidencing payment for postal services. Such stamps are provided in predetermined value denominations and typically comprise some form of preprinted paper or other relatively fragile medium. The stamps are generally applied to a postal item for which they are to provide evidence of postal service payment using a suitable adhesive to prevent removal and reuse of the stamp without their destruction (e.g., tearing of the stamp medium). Moreover, the stamps are “cancelled” (i.e., marked as used) by the postal service when processing the postal item to prevent reuse of the stamp.
Although the foregoing stamps provide useful value bearing indicia, they have not always provided the convenience desired by their users. For example, they must be pre-purchased to be available for use by a postal customer when needed. Moreover, they are available only in the value denominations in which they are provided, whereas a user may desire some other denomination (e.g., a denomination which is not an integer multiple of the value bearing indicia value denomination). Accordingly, value bearing indicia in the form of postage meter indicia has been used by postal services.
Postage meter indicia provide value bearing indicia which are generated in desired value denominations by a user at or very near the time of posting a postal item. Such postage meter indicia includes both the more traditional value bearing indicia provided by a postage meter strike and the more modern information based indicia provided by processor-based postage metering systems (e.g., personal computer and/or Internet postage metering system configurations). The postage meter indicia may be imprinted directly upon the postal item or upon transfer media (e.g., paper label stock). In either case, the postage meter indicia is typically affixed to the postal item in such a way as to prevent removal and reuse of the postage meter indicia without their destruction. Moreover, the postage meter indicia are generated to include information therein (e.g., date, information uniquely linking the postage meter indicia to the postal item, information linking the postage meter indicia to the sender and/or intended recipient of the postal item, etc.) which prevent their reuse (e.g., at a date other than included in the indicium, on a postal item other than the one linked to the indicium, on a postal item to or from entities other than the sender and/or intended recipient linked to the indicium, etc.).
Although the foregoing postage meter indicia provide value bearing indicia having value determinations closely matched to the postal item with which they are to be used, they do not provide the ready availability that the aforementioned stamps do. That is, a user typically must utilize some form of meter system to generate the potage meter indicia, which may prove inconvenient and time consuming when the user desires to prepare a single postal item for posting. Accordingly, value bearing indicia in the form of fungible postage indicia has been more recently made available by postal services. Examples of fungible postage indicia are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,939,062 entitled “System and Layout for Proper Printing of NETSTAMPS and Other Labels” and U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,345 entitled “Roll Label Layout and System for Proper Printing of NETSTAMPS,” assigned to the present assignee, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Fungible postage indicia provide value bearing indicia which is somewhat of a hybrid between the aforementioned stamps and postage meter indicia. That is, a plurality of fungible postage indicia may be pre-produced in desired value denominations for later use in posting postal items. Thus, although some form of meter system is used to generate the fungible postage indicia, a plurality of such fungible postage indicia may be generated at a convenient time for their later use. The user may therefore be afforded the advantages provided by the use of postage meters (e.g., generating indicia in desired value denominations, obtaining postage value without traveling to a post office, postage accounting and reporting functionality, etc.) while enjoying convenience similar to that of “ready made” stamps.
The fungible postage indicia are printed upon transfer media (e.g., paper label stock) for affixing to the postal item in such a way as to prevent removal and reuse of the fungible postage indicia without their destruction. Although the fungible postage indicia may include a machine readable (e.g., two dimensional barcode) or other validation information portion similar to that of an information based indicium, the fungible postage indicia are fungible because they are dateless and are used without specified recipient addresses. Moreover, because the machine readable or other validation information portion is to remain readable for use in validating the fungible postage indicia, cancellation (i.e., applying a mark to the face of the fungible postage indicia to indicate it having been used) of the fungible postage indicia is generally not performed by the postal service. Thus, the use of paper label stock is relied upon to prevent removal and reuse of the fungible postage indicia without their destruction (e.g., tearing of the fungible postage indicia medium). Such paper label stock, however, often does not provide a postage indicia which is aesthetically pleasing when applied to a postal item (e.g., the color of the label stock does not match the stock of the postal item).
Various techniques may be implemented to prevent the copying and reproduction of fungible postage indicia (e.g., using xerographic equipment or computer-based scanner equipment). For example, special inks which are invisible under natural light, but which fluoresce under light of a particular wavelength (e.g., ultraviolet light), may be applied to the fungible postage indicia medium (e.g., as a marker) to render reproduction by typical copying techniques ineffective. Similarly, special inks which visually appear to have different characteristics (e.g., change color), such as thermo-chromatic inks, may be applied to the fungible postage indicium medium to render reproduction by typical copying techniques ineffective. However, these security measures, although effectively thwarting duplication, do nothing to prevent reuse of an otherwise properly generated fungible postage indicia. Accordingly, for the use of such fungible postage indicia in the United States Postal Service (USPS), the USPS has required that the fungible postage indicia be physically destroyed if removed from the postal item more than 24 hours after application thereto in order to prevent removal and reuse of the fungible postage indicia.